Gas and electricity companies rage!!!!

StevieP · 8 Sep 2011 at 11:58

I consider myself to be quite on the ball when it comes to my utilities - I do my own meter readings online, keep track of my quarterly usage, amend the direct debit when necessary and always shop around for the best deal when my existing one expires.

Trouble is, every single gas & electricity provider have a unique method of calculating the usage which effectively renders sites such as uswitch completely useless!?!?! :confused:

I'm thinking of kicking Scottish Power into touch (given a 27% increase in electricity and a whopping 53% increase in gas prices!! :eek:

) so thought it would be easy to work out which supplier would be best for me but between the varying prices for primary and secondary units, the varying standing charges and online discounts and the fact that they are even now allocating various months with different primary unit usages - its become impossible to calculate if I'll be better off with someone else! :mad:

Basically unless you chart your own usage month by month for the preceeding 12 months, there is no way to accurately compare the hundreds of various companies and packages!!

Anyway, rant over!

Glaucus · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:06

I agree it's so stupidly hard.

There's only one way to really do it and that's ignore comparison sites and spend a day on excel and using data of your online account For usage.
Takes a while but it's the only way, even finding the unit rates on their sites is usually fairly hard, they always burry the link somewhere so it's hard to find.

StevieP · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:41

I wouldnt mind spending the day if all the suppliers charged "x" for primary units and "y" for secondary units and they all had the same allocation for each quarter but npower for example allocate a smaller percentage of their primary unit cost to varying months throughout the year which effectively makes it impossible to compare to others that work it out differently! :mad:

Danthus · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:45

AcidHell2 said:
I agree it's so stupidly hard.

There's only one way to really do it and that's ignore comparison sites and spend a day on excel and using data of your online account For usage.
Takes a while but it's the only way, even finding the unit rates on their sites is usually fairly hard, they always burry the link somewhere so it's hard to find.

Watchdog last week calculated, and I am not sure how, that the price range for all the tariffs from all of the big six suppliers only differed by £22 per year. I think that was for a dual gas and electricity product.

Glaucus · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:47

StevieP said:
I wouldnt mind spending the day if all the suppliers charged "x" for primary units and "y" for secondary units and they all had the same allocation for each quarter but npower for example allocate a smaller percentage of their primary unit cost to varying months throughout the year which effectively makes it impossible to compare to others that work it out differently!

Yeah small Amount of cheap rate in the summer and loads of expensive rate in the winter, so you pay like £5 a month in summer and about £200 a month in winter. It's one of the reasons they win on comparison sites and you end up paying several hundred more.

Danthus · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:47

I want the regulator to force the suppliers too simplify the tariffs. Like other have said, it should be x and y.

This would make it simple for the consumer.

Vonhelmet · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:50

Dilbert coined the term "confusopoly" for this sort of situation -

Dilbert said:
a group of companies with similar products who intentionally confuse customers instead of competing on price

Danthus · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:52

Vonhelmet said:
Dilbert coined the term "confusopoly" for this sort of situation.

I have given up changing supplier to be honest. It doesn't have to be confusing, it is by design.

darael · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:58

If you don't have any of your readings, ask your supplier for both customer read and meter read readings, with the dates which they were taken. Refuse any annual consumption rates, as these aren't entirely accurate either.

Log these into a simple spreadsheet (Date, Gas, Electric), and for the next months log your meter readings every week both online and in your spreadsheet. You will soon be able to use these readings to input your own exact annual consumption into the likes of uSwitch.

I agree it's a pain - but if you want control, you need to take it.

StevieP · 8 Sep 2011 at 13:41

darael said:
Log these into a simple spreadsheet (Date, Gas, Electric), and for the next months log your meter readings every week both online and in your spreadsheet. You will soon be able to use these readings to input your own exact annual consumption into the likes of uSwitch.

I agree it's a pain - but if you want control, you need to take it.

I completely agree that this is the only way to get a (semi)accurate idea of your expected consumption - but even with this info broken down by month or even by week, the uswitch figures are meaningless because it doesnt allow you to input the individual figures!

Just wish I'd kept a monthly tally of my readings over the last 12 months so I could make an informed decision! :confused:

Vonhelmet · 8 Sep 2011 at 13:56

If you do online meter readings with Scottish Power, then you should be able to get your historic usage and somewhere within that lot you can find the readings you've logged each time. I think you have to get it from your bills or something. I know, because I did it just before I jumped ship from Scottish Power, so that I could find out the best deal from uSwitch or whichever comparison site I used.

I had to put the numbers into a spreadsheet and then divide things up by the number of days between each reading. It was a bit fiddly, but it did the job and got me the figures for my average yearly usage.

Dutch Guy · 8 Sep 2011 at 13:58

Yeah, it's annoying.
I measure the meter every month to at least know our usage.
And I spent a few hours with Excel calculating the different companies and they all charge roughly the same, the difference was a few %
The only advantage you have when switching is a limited discount or another extra.

For me it's not worth it changing often as I don't trust them at all and I also never fix my price for a longer period.

StevieP · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:03

Vonhelmet said:
If you do online meter readings with Scottish Power, then you should be able to get your historic usage and somewhere within that lot you can find the readings you've logged each time.

Yeah, I've got my readings from each time they asked for them anyway (roughly every 3 months) which I thought would be good enough but annoyingly, npower break down different unit prices per month which I cant work out as accurately as I'd like from my available figures!

Dutch Guy said:
Yeah, it's annoying.
I measure the meter every month to at least know our usage.
And I spent a few hours with Excel calculating the different companies and they all charge roughly the same, the difference was a few %
The only advantage you have when switching is a limited discount or another extra.

For me it's not worth it changing often as I don't trust them at all and I also never fix my price for a longer period.

I know there isnt generally a big difference in the actual costs but you can make a pretty penny switching through Quidco or Topcashback which makes it worthwhile!

krooton · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:11

EDF tariffs have the same rates each month as far as I can see, they don't fluctuate with the seasons, just your usage does.

StevieP · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:19

krooton said:
EDF tariffs have the same rates each month as far as I can see, they don't fluctuate with the seasons, just your usage does.

Which is great....except its still unique and different to everyone elses method of calculating your bill!! :mad:

Its as if all the providers sat down one day and they all had to choose a different box that contained a random way of calculating their charges and no-one was allowed to pick the same box!

krooton · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:23

StevieP said:
Which is great....except its still unique and different to everyone elses method of calculating your bill!!

Its as if all the providers sat down one day and they all had to choose a different box that contained a random way of calculating their charges and no-one was allowed to pick the same box!

Southern Electric seems to have a tariff price list exactly the same as EDF.

You pick your region, it shows the standing charge, and then the charge per kWh.

Scrutinize · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:38

i have been trying to do this recently and it is surprisingly hard to find out what the costs of the tariffs or units actually are, let alone if you will make any saving.

for example, I am with Eon which has no standing charge, looking to the comparison and switch sites, N Power comes up best, they do have the lowest unit prices but then add in a standing charge. As I have been on an Eon online tariff I have all my bills for the last 2 years so I can see actual usage and they do provide some useful tracker tools. my own calcs show that simply moving to a different Eon tariff is likely to be more advantageous.

StriderX · 8 Sep 2011 at 14:41

This is easily solved, make your own power and heat yourselves with it instead.

:rolleyes:

neil3k · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:10

StriderX said:
This is easily solved, make your own power and heat yourselves with it instead.

Django x2 · 8 Sep 2011 at 15:29

Same, although npower works out cheapest for me always for some reason.

I pay £38 a month total for gas and electric. My actual electricity bill for a month however is around £6.50